Near Petersburg. Va. July 6^th

 

I take the present time to answer your kind and welcome letter which I received in due season and you may be assured it was a very welcome message for no person loves to get letters better than I do. I love to receive letters from old friends, also relatives that are near and dear to me by the ties of relationship I love to think of home and of seasons that have past and gone, and forget for a few moments that I am a soldier far away from home and all its enjoyments and to contrast those seasons with the present time and as one has said to see the stately tread of advancing columns of our Army the rattle of musketry and the boom of cannon the hissing of shells and the terrible crash of thunderbolts of iron thousands lie bleeding and dead upon the death plains of Virginia. thousands lye racked and / tortured upon the uneasy couches of dingy hospitals thinking of home and its comforts of peace and its blessings. just fancy for one moment you hear one of these poor sufferers in his fitful moments of slumber as he lisps the name of Mother. his wandering mind leads him back to that little cottage by the roadside with its white walls and climbing jessamine. he sees the image of his Mother as it flits before his imagination and that vacant chair by the fireside where ofttimes he has sat and listened to the sacred teachings of that lovely being. three years ago he stood upon that little doorstep a bright noble looking form his eye flashed with patriotism and duty, and as the fife and drum drew near he swung the knapsack on his back and shouldered his musket one embrace one kiss and one God Speed you and he was in the ranks marching on to do battle for his country. Since then he has faced death upon the bloody plains of Antietam and the corpse strewn heights of Gettysburg and in the gigantic struggle for the capture of Richmond 

 

            a little while longer and we will know the result it will end in the downfall of Richmond or the annihilation of our Army, but enough of this.

 

I am enjoying good health at present for which I am thankful as there is considerable sickness here just now I suppose you have read about a Reb fort being blown up here. the Rebs tried to blow one of ours up last evening in the 18^th Corps but did not succeed very well they got the worst of it. I suppose Wallace will be at home in a few days but I will close tell Cassie I will write to her soon. does Paul Rhodes live where he did last winter give my respects to himself and family when you see him Write soon and oblige your Friend

                       

Horace

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